Edinburgh Fringe: Luisa Omielan - Politics for Bitches, Gilded Balloon, comedy review: 'The audience are on their feet by the end'
Despite the title of her new show, Luisa Omielan says she doesn't do politics - apparently it took her long enough to figure out the lack of difference between a Tory and a Conservative. Discussion of politics, in fact, is a penis being shoved unwanted towards her face first thing in the morning, and she has to keep finding ways of batting it aside. But why doesn't she give it a go, just this once? Here, then, is what she's learned.
From such beginnings, we're very much into the territory of Omielan's hit shows What Would Beyoncé Do? and Am I Right Ladies?, proper big night out affairs with relatable observational material and an easy audience rapport. With her dog Bernie at her feet and a flipboard alongside her, Omielan batters through a few facts and figures she says she's picked up especially for the show; her naivete may be fabricated to an extent, but it adds to the sense of unreality fostered by a number of statistics. “I know, mate!” she comes back in response to one stunned gasp, as she ploughs through material about the private-to-state schooling ratios of our leaders or - an important one for the show - the precise amounts each government department spends (welfare and the NHS are not the greatest).
All of this is build-up, though, to Omielan's main point, and this is where the comedy recedes and the passion really kicks in. Her mother became sick and died in the last year, and Omielan feels deeply let down by the NHS and by extension the state, over both her diagnosis and treatment. It's hard to make any of this funny and she doesn't try, but the audience are on their feet by the end. This is satire gone through the looking glass into the visceral, personal pain of bad political decisions, and there's no way it can help but move.
Until 26 August (not 23rd). https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/luisa-omielan-politics-for-bitches